Onboard Your Low-Tech Household Staff on Trello
When developing your online household management system—on Trello or otherwise—some finesse is needed to get tech-adverse humans on board. Expect some resistance and use a large dose of patience so that everyone on your team feels comfortable with the new information.
Since our How To Manage A Mansion™ System is developed on Trello.com, I’ll use this as an example. However, this technique applies to any software program onboarding.
Before you can start training, I suggest…
COMPLETING YOUR MASTER MAINTENANCE TASK LIST and providing separate task lists for each staff member.
ASSIGNING COMPLETION DATES TO EACH TASK to build out your 12-month maintenance calendar. This provides a schedule for completing their work. Denote teamwork expectations for heavy lifting or work requiring a ladder.
BUILD SEPARATE TASK LISTS FOR EACH PERSON ON YOUR TEAM. Create a separate monthly card (i.e., January, February, March, etc.).
CHECK OUT OUR DIY HOUSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ON TRELLO.COM
Then…
DOWNLOAD THE TRELLO PHONE APP. Train your staff from their phones. Locate the Trello icon directly above the text icon on their phone’s home screen. Ensure they are logged on and invited to their property board, and they can see their task list.
ASK THEM TO CHECK THE BOXES OF THEIR COMPLETED TASK DAILY. This should happen at the end of each day.
ASK FOR THEIR FEEDBACK. Your system is only as good as the information within it. If they complete tasks that aren't on their list, they'll need to provide that information to be input into the Excel spreadsheet and then copied into Trello.
SCHEDULE WEEKLY 1-ON-1 MEETING DURING THE ONBOARDING PROCESS. Face-to-face or virtually. You don’t want to be the last to know that your staff is having trouble downloading the app or finding their information. They may be too embarrassed to tell you.
IF YOUR STAFF IS RESISTANT TO YOUR NEW SYSTEM. Some staff aren’t accustomed to using a checklist. Print their task list, ask them to check boxes of the completed tasks, and require them to return the list by the end of each day/week. Give them 2-3 weeks to become accustomed to the written information and then transition them to their phone app by the end of the month.
